Type1 gf

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DiabeticPartner

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Hey all,

Just come across these forums and have been reading all morning!! While I don't have diabetes my gf is type 1 and I've been reading around to find all I can do to support her. I'm very much in love with her going to pop her the question soon :D

Recently she had extremely high sugar levels due to a virus and was hospitalised. As you can imagine that scared the living daylights out of me, she's feeling much better now but I want to learn as much as I can about her condition so I can always be there for her.

Guys any useful info, places to get started, pieces of advice would all be very much appreciated!

Cheers 🙂
 
DiabeticPartner said:
Hey all,

Just come across these forums and have been reading all morning!! While I don't have diabetes my gf is type 1 and I've been reading around to find all I can do to support her. I'm very much in love with her going to pop her the question soon :D

Recently she had extremely high sugar levels due to a virus and was hospitalised. As you can imagine that scared the living daylights out of me, she's feeling much better now but I want to learn as much as I can about her condition so I can always be there for her.

Guys any useful info, places to get started, pieces of advice would all be very much appreciated!

Cheers 🙂
Click to expand...

What a bloke..!! Welcome. Theres plenty on here, and if she is interested maybe you could encourage her gently this way too. If you guys have questions ask away. Lots of knowledgable T1s on here and lots of advice and new stuff to learn.

Personally I find it quite touching youve taken such an interest.
 
Wow, how lovely that you have joined in order to help her.

Welcome to the forum.

Anything you would like to learn more about just ask, there is no such thing as a silly question (Trust me! I've asked enough 🙂 )
 
Awww that's ace! Loads of friendly people with lots of good advice on here!🙂
 
Hi,

You certainly have the right attitude in wanting to understand more about Type 1 diabetes in order to support your gf .. well done, and I personally think this ebook from DiabetesUK is an excellent starting point ...

This document entitled "Carb-Counts-2012" (https://shop.diabetes.org.uk/usr/downloads/Carbs-Count-2012-reduced.pdf) is extremely clear & well written. It covers all the necessary aspects of living with diabetes, and although called "Carb-Counts-2012" it's real title is "An introduction to carbohydrate counting and insulin dose adjustment" plus a lot more including treating hypos etc.

I've been T1 for 43 years and still found it very useful to learn about carb counting and insulin:carb ratios only 6 months ago!

Jonty
 
Thank you very much for the warm welcome 🙂

To be honest I was pretty scared when I found out she was diabetic, all I'd heard about going blind, losing kidney function and foot amputations really got me worried. As I got to know her more I realised she had it very well controlled and is still very good at taking her readings and adjusting her pump. Reading all the posts on this forum especially from people who've been type 1 for 40+/50+ years eases my worries and gives me real hope of having a wonderful life and family with her.

Thanks Jonty, I'll read through that.

What I would really like to know is how best I can help her through hypos, how do I recognise she is having an episode and what do I do to help? How do I know if I should take her to the hospital or not?
 
I would suggest you read Chapter 9 of the ebook since it explains it all pretty clearly .. "Hypoglycemia is a short term complication of diabetes. By understanding when and why a hypo might happen, you can manage them more effectively."

Although I've been well controlled and hence have no complications, I've certainly had my share of scary hypos over 40+ years. I would recommend Bassetts Jelly Babies as a very effective high sugar recovery carbohydrate.. just get her to chew 2 or 3 and within 15 minutes all will be well again. In my experience, having started accurate carb counting & insulin adjustment the frequency of hypos has reduced significantly and I've not had an "assisted" hypo for about 2 years now.

You should only need to ring 999 if you find it is not possible for her to eat anything to get the blood sugar back up. My wife has only had to do that on very infrequent occasions, and then the paramedics will attend and I've never had to go to hospital once I've recovered.

Best of luck ..

Jonty
 
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ive been diagnosed just over 2 weeks and had 5 hypos already there pretty strange and ive been on y own every time luckily enough my body warns me rather early and all ive done each time is eat a pack of fruit pastels and within 10 mins im fine i just follow it up with a small bowl of granola and im fine after that
 
hello and welcome 🙂

I think it's great that you are wanting to be so supportive to your soon-to-be-fiance(!) I have been a diabetic most of my life and when I met my now husband I was going through a really difficult stage and having so many hypos it was ridiculous... although I hate having hypos I was actually used to it but for him, who had just met me, it scared the living daylights out of him and was probably a much worse experience watching me helplessly than for me experiencing it and he would often over compensate with sugar as I was craving it and he didn't know how much to give me. He got so worried by it that he came to my next appointment with the DSN and has come to every appointment since as my diabetes affects him as much as it does me.

My diabetes has it's bad days but I think I have as good a relationship with my husband as anyone else, and with a bit of planning it doesn't stop us doing anything we want to do! The only thing I would say is that my control isn't great at the moment so my diabetes is dictating when we can start a family, which is frustrating to say the least but I'm hoping I can get my hba1c down for that opportunity. So, if you are planning a family it is important to let your diabetes team know before you start trying.

Good luck with everything

xx
 
This is such a lovely lovely post, delightful to be one of the first things I have read today. It's really supportive that you want to learn as much as you can and be there for her. One thing I find as a woman with Diabetes that helps me a lot is that when I am having a Hypo I don't like to be asked lots of time what I would like to eat, I like to be given something quickly so I don't need to over think and make a hard decision when I am struggling to concentrate! Keep up the good work. 🙂
 
Awww its lovely that you care so much, She's a very lucky lady.

If you have certain questions, we can help. I think my mum got a book about diabetes, if I can remember ill see what it was called
 
Thanks guys for all the advice, been snooping around the forum and picking up on all the wonderful D terminology!

Vix, that's a good idea I will try and join her appointment with the DSN. Good luck with starting a family I know I'll be in your shoes fairly soon so will be back for more advice!

Thinking of getting this book, Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents by Ragnar Hanas, is it any good?

And what if the sugar levels are too high? How do you deal with that, do you just increase the insulin dose?
 
What a lovely post! One of the biggest concerns my daughter had when she was diagnosed age 11 was whether it would mean no boy would ever want to go out with her! It may seem ridiculous, but to her it was a real concern. It warmed my heart to read your post. Not only do you seem to accept that her diabetes is part of her, but your desire to learn more and support her is wonderful. She is a lucky lady. Good luck to you both 🙂
 
DiabeticPartner said:
Thinking of getting this book, Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents by Ragnar Hanas, is it any good?
Click to expand...

Many peeps on the forum highly recommend it. A very thorough overview for T1s (and partners!) of any age - lots of useful stuff no matter how long you've been diagnosed.
 
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